A superb audience recording of a special acoustic show, held in the presence of 12,000 fans, from the veteran Jersey Shore rockers. With only nominal crowd noise between songs and a very intimate vibe overall, it's hard not to recommend this to any Bon Jovi collector. Here's what one fan who attended posted to a newsgroup about the gig: "I was lucky enough to get tickets to last night's Jan. 19th "unplugged" acoustic show, and it was incredible. As the show was being filmed for a future DVD we were close enough that it was like being with Jon et. al. in a small recording studio. Very upclose and personal, and although Jon and Richie had bad colds, they 'gave all they had and then some,' as Jon said. The night went on for almost 4 hours, and included a full strings orchestral backup, and soft mini lighting behind the stage." Indeed, the presence of a filming crew obviously dictated that several of the songs be performed twice, hence the setlist notations above of "take 1" and "take 2." In a sense, that makes this set all the more collectible, since you'll get the unvarnished, pre-sweetened, unedited Bon Jovi and not the final commercial product. Also take note of a handful of choice covers: songs penned by Bowie, Steve Miller and John Hiatt. Tracks 8-11 on the third disc are from a soundcheck for the Jan. 17 (electric) show and that the sound quality drops considerably. JBJ's vocals are relatively clear, but the instruments are at points virtually inaudible, almost as if the taper was hiding in a broom closet in the venue - however, closer inspection of the verbal asides and comments suggests the source is probably an in-ear monitor transmission that the taper was able to tap into. The Jan. 17 show is also available in its entirety on the 4CD title Double Score (from the same label) along with some more of the soundcheck. Nothing special about the artwork, just two-sided tray panel inserts with standard-fare photos and tracklistings (no booklet). There is no label name or stock number for this release. |
